Chapter Text
Sara woke up to the sound of clanging metal in the dorm hall, shouting, and the smell of smoke. Sitting up in her bed groggily, she looked over at her clock to see it was 10 pm. These people have no respect for others, do they? She thought, getting out of bed annoyed. Every week something like this happened at night, usually because of that intolerable man Itto, who insisted on having either parties in his dorm; or testing every video he saw online in the hall.
Usually the ‘testing’ resulted in property damage to the dorms or mental damage to Sara. Sure enough, Sara could hear his obnoxious voice in the hall arguing with someone. Slipping on her shoes and storming to her door she took a deep breath; fully prepared for at least an hour of fighting to make them all be quiet again.
Sara swung open the door, leaning out of the doorway and glaring as she looked for where the commotion was. A few of Arataki’s friends looked over at her nervously, but oddly enough, it wasn’t the usual look of fear towards her. One of them shook his head in a panic, gesturing for her to go back to her dorm.
Sighing, Sara went over to the source of the headache. She couldn’t see what was happening past the small crowd around the end of the hall, which had a small seating area. usually there would only be a few people there, often waiting for their friends or dormmates; at the moment however, it was packed.
She could see Itto’s head there, and she could definitely hear him. Sara recognized a few of the other students there watching; the Kaedehara boy was one of them, staying near the edge of the crowd and glancing over at her. “I wouldn’t recommend intervening this time” he said, giving her a nervous smile. “Who in the name of Celestia is he fighting this time?” Sara asked, trying to look over shoulders in the crowd. “a transfer student, Gorou and I tried calming Itto down, but he seems invested” Kazuha said with a shrug.
Sara gritted her teeth, moving through the other students who were blocking the path. None of them should even be out of bed to watch this, they were all undoubtedly making Arataki and whoever he was fighting more agitated. The man always got more energetic when a lot of people were around.
Sure enough, Gorou was one of the people closer to the center, awkwardly trying to pull Itto back. Shinobu wasn’t there surprisingly, Sara guessed she was still studying for her exams in the library. Sangonomiya was off to the side, whispering something to Yae, who smirked at the chaos in front of her. Of course, she was having fun with this, the girl always took pleasure in disaster.
Sara finally managed to break through the crowd to see the strangest opponent Itto had possibly ever fought. The transfer student looked nothing like the imbecile Sara had pictured in her head. For one thing, the girl was shorter than Sara was, and looked a bit scrawnier as well – not weak necessarily, she seemed to work out; but definitely less athletic than Sara or Itto.
Her hair was a mix of light blue and white, going to her shoulders with a few longer, loose strands in the back. She had blue eyes and a small top hat sat on the box next to her, looking like it had fallen off her head. The oddest thing about her was the combination of a dress shirt and tie with what looked like white basketball shorts. The girl looked beyond ridiculous arguing with a 6-foot-tall weightlifter; more like a light novel protagonist than an actual threat.
The girl was hurling a range of foreign curses at him as someone on the side tried to hold back her hand from throwing a book at his head. On second glance it seemed to be Thoma, who was simultaneously trying to wave at people to leave. The crowd didn’t move however, some filming it on their phones and others curiously watching. Sara froze for a moment looking at it; it looked absolutely ridiculous. THIS was what had woken her up from bed, a pint-sized foreign transfer arguing with Sara’s least favorite hallmate.
It was beyond outrageous, and Sara was about to punch Itto in the nose before she heard Yae hold back a snicker. “Looks like the bird woke up” she said, grinning. Gorou looked at her pleadingly as he tried- and failed- to stop Itto from throwing another stack of papers at his opponent. “Boss, maybe you should stop; Kujou’s here-” one of his friends said, panicking. “I DON’T CARE IF SHE IS” Itto said, still fixated. “This little Fontainian punk tried scamming ME” he shouted. The girl snorted “scamming would imply it took EFFORT to fool you” she said, smirking. “YOU LITTLE-” Itto started, but before he could throw something else Sara stepped into the center and snapped “what do you two think you’re doing, waking everyone up?” She was beyond being civil and de-escalating at this point, whatever would make them shut up the fastest was her aim now.
“This punk scammed me and my boys into carrying her things up for her then refused to pay us; AND she sabotaged our food!” Itto said, fuming. “Oh please, nothing I could have done would make that mess of a plate any worse” the girl said, rolling her eyes. Itto opened his mouth again to talk, and before he could make things worse; Sara yanked him down by the ear “get back to your dorms before I drag you there myself” she snapped. “OW FINE FINE FINE KUJOU YOU DON’T HAVE TO BREAK MY EAR OFF” he yelped.
In about five minutes the crowd had dispersed and Arataki- along with his goons- were back in their room being loud there. Some people had tried to lag behind still, but after a glare from Sara they had followed Itto in leaving. The transfer student stayed in the hall, plopping her hat back on so it was somewhat lopsided and letting out an annoyed huff. “He really is awfully dramatic” she said.
Sara turned back to her, still annoyed “why aren’t you in your dorm already?” she asked, trying to calm her blood pressure from the incident. “Well, my WILDLY unhelpful roommates aren’t home and I wasn’t given keys” the girl said, sighing dramatically and leaning on her boxes. She looked up at Sara again, as if she was processing her properly for the first time. Glancing her up and down, she smirked “although I must say, that fool didn’t tell me anything about you” she said. Sara fought back the redness in her cheeks. She had never been good at dealing with flirting, especially not when the person was this charming with it.
“And you have nowhere else to go?” Sara asked, trying to divert back. “No, I suppose I can sleep out here and check again tomorrow” the girl said with a shrug. “In the dorm hall? You’re going to sleep in the dorm hall?” Sara said, narrowing her eyes. “I’ve slept in worse places” the girl responded with a yawn. Sara thought about her options for a moment; she could leave the girl here and be in peace, or she could do the nice thing. The nice option possibly leading to her not sleeping at all should this girl be annoying. “If you really can’t go into your own room, you can stay in mine tonight; besides, your belongings will be safer there than out in the open like this” she said reluctantly.
The girl looked up again, with an expression of pure smugness. “Who am I to deny generosity from a charming white knight such as yourself?” she said. Sara failed to suppress the redness that time “just get a box” she grumbled, lifting up a stack of boxes.
By the time the girl had all her things in Sara’s dorm and had changed into something less strange; Sara was sure the girl was either the biggest flirt in the entire college, or insane. Every other sentence would end in a wink, smirk, or her saying something flirtatious in another language. She seemed to get a burst of energy every time it made Sara break eye contact.
She had also shared an unnecessarily large amount of information about herself with Sara; her name was Focalors, she was a law student, and she adored watching chaos – Sara could already tell that part about her. Finally, it was 11 pm and Sara could finally return to bed, albeit with this bizarre girl in her dorm room. At the very least, she could finally find rest. Except perhaps the most obvious oversight in Sara’s entire life.
“And where shall I be staying my beloved savior?” she asked. In that instant, Sara processed that she had one bed, no couch, and no chairs comfortable enough to sleep in. she blinked, staring at the lone bed as dread slowly set it. Focalors tip toed to look over Sara’s shoulder, also blinked, and smirked. “My my, very bold, aren’t we?” she asked. Sara almost jumped out of her skin “how did you-” she started.
Focalors sighed “well, shall we sleep then? I’m simply exhausted” she said. “But-” Sara tried to finish, only to be cut off again as the girl dragged her over. “Relax ma chérie, I won’t tell anyone you cuddled up to me to fall asleep; and if you really are uncomfortable, I can always use a blanket to sleep on the floor” she said, pausing at the end to wait for Sara’s response. Sara’s face turned red again “I wouldn’t cuddle you, and it’s fine; I’ve shared a bed before with friends, I’m not bothered” she said, trying to keep her voice level. Focalors smiled again “if you do it’s alright darling, I’m fine with holding you until you sleep” she said.
“… just go to bed.”